*Fault arrest warrant on Fubara loyalists
*Insists actions of the Police boss contradicth President Tinubu’s peace deal
By Dokubo Oyakhilome, Port Harcourt
A pressure group, Rivers for Peace and Justice, has accused the Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Kayode Egbetokun, of working with certain interest groups to destabilize the administration of Governor Similayi Fubara.
The group expressed surprise at the speed with which the police was allegedly hunting down loyalists of Governor Fubara, yet, leaving the Federal Capital Territory (FTC), where the police boss lives, at the mercy of terrorists and kidnappers.
According to the group, had the police boss spent a fraction of the energy deployed in hunting down Fubara’s loyalists on arresting those terrorizing Abuja and other parts of the country, Nigeria would have been one of the safest countries in the world.
The group, in a statement in Abuja by its National Coordinator, Chief Harry Amadi, accused the police boss of “stoking the embers of the political crisis in the state which President Bola Tinubu had effectively resolved.”
Said the group: “We are happy that President Bola Tinubu did well to restore peace in our dear state. We’re also happy that Governor Fubara kept his own side of the bargain.
“What we don’t understand is the role of the IGP in this imbroglio. If he’s trying to scuttle Mr. President’s peace efforts, we’ll get to see it.
“First, it was the IGP deploying his Tactical Team to Bayelsa to cause confusion. It is now Rivers State. He is bringing confusion at a time we were celebrating the peace deal Mr. President in his fatherly wisdom brokered.
“To be sure, we are not opposed to the police doing their job. However, we oppose a situation where the police become a willing tool in the hands of a self-styled political godfather, reason we see this latest move by the IGP as being inimical to the peace we so much need in Rivers State,” the statement stressed.
The police high command had last week obtained an ex-parte order at a Federal High Court, Abuja, for the arrest of Fubara’s newly-appointed Chief of Staff, Hon. Edison Ehie.
Also ordered to be arrested were Jinjiri Bala, Happy Benedict, Progress Joseph, Adokiye Oyagiri and Chibuike Peter, also known as Rambo.
Ehie is the imediate-past Speaker of the Rivers State House of Assembly.
The police accused the six personalities of burning down the Rivers State House of Assembly complex.
Justice Emeka Nwite granted the order for their arrest, while delivering a ruling in an ex-parte application predicated on sections 37, 113, 114, 84 and 184 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act (ACJA), 2015, and section 35 of the 1999 Constitution, as well as Section 32 of the Police Act, 2020.
In the ex-parte application argued by a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), and Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP), Simon Lough, the six defendants were said to be at large.
